More than two decades ago, a Utah State University horticulture researcher set aside 11 acres of green space in Nibley, determined to protect it from development and preserve it for people and wildlife.
The land, gifted in 2003 to the Allen and Alice Stokes Nature Center in Logan Canyon, sat fenced and largely untouched as the small Cache Valley town grew steadily around it.
The donor, Alice Denney, once used the space to cultivate a small orchard of apricot, apple and plum trees. Before her death, she placed the property under a wildlife conservation easement to shield it from development and ensure its habitat remained intact.
She donated the land to the nonprofit nature center through her will, said the center’s executive director, Kendra Penry.
“She wanted to make sure that it went someplace that would fulfill her intention of providing nature for both people and wild animals,” Penry said.
For years, the center envisioned transforming the property at 100 W. 2600 South into a community nature park, Penry said, but lacked the funding to move the costly project forward.
That changed in 2022, when the center secured a $1.9 million federal grant — clearing the way for plans to turn the site into a hub for education, gathering and outdoor access.
“This property opens the door for a whole new suite of programming,” Penry said, “from dark skies to gardening to things we just cannot do in the canyon, but that we feel are really important for people here in the valley to participate in.”
When will the park open?
Penry said volunteers recently helped complete two yurts — one for the center’s outdoors-focused nature preschool and another for field trips and community programs.
(Kendra Penry) Volunteers work on constructing the foundation of a yurt at the new Stokes Nature Center nature park in Nibley.
Crews also have finished a raised walkway around an expanded, revitalized pond, along with a covered pavilion featuring picnic tables, rooftop solar panels and public restrooms.
“We are still fundraising to be sure that we can keep this project going and really complete everything,” she said, “but we had enough to make something impactful, so we started it, and here we are.”
Penry said the center plans to open the nature park in the spring, with only minor work left such as putting up signs and finishing an irrigation system for the gardens.
Aside from the yurts and pavilion, most of the property will remain open space, preserved as wetlands and meadows threaded with a trail system. Penry said early plans included a few play areas, but the center ultimately decided against it.
(Kendra Penry) Kendra Penry, executive director of the Stokes Nature Center, lays down insulation for a newly built yurt that will be used as an outdoor classroom at the new nature park in Nibley.
“We just thought, well, the whole thing is a nature play area,” she said. “We don’t necessarily need to create structured play so much as offering an opportunity for people to interact in their own ways.”
Oh, deer
One parcel initially set aside for a play area was instead converted into an Indigenous garden, planted by students in the Indigenous Land Stewardship course taught by Darren Parry at Utah State University and the University of Utah.
Parry, former chair of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, told The Tribune during the summer planting that the garden is intended to honor the land’s original stewards while giving students a chance to apply what they learn in the classroom to a real-world project.
The garden produced its first harvest by fall, Parry said Tuesday. In October, his students and nature center officials gathered to mark the season with a harvest celebration — including a meal made entirely from what they had grown.
The garden’s first season produced vegetables such as five heirloom bean varieties tied to several Indigenous nations, with more plant varieties planned in the years ahead, Parry said.
Students in Parry’s spring class will take on responsibility for tending the garden, he said, with hopes to double its size.
Penry said the center invited community members to take home what they wanted from the harvest — though some of the bounty never made it that far. Deer, she said, reached the garden just ahead of the harvest, claiming their share first.
“The deer came and took everything they wanted,” she said, “which was both frustrating, but also the intention of our property is to be a wildlife habitat, so we couldn’t be too upset.”
(Kendra Penry) Newly built yurts that will serve as outdoor classrooms at the Stokes Nature Center site currently under construction in Nibley.
The site is still home to Denney’s fruit trees, Penry said, which are harvested each year and donated to a food pantry. It’s a way to honor the donor’s intentions for the land, and Penry said the center plans to plant more fruit-bearing trees native to the area.
“We’re just hoping that this property can show that you can both have human interaction with the land and still have healthy land,” Penry said. “Both are possible simultaneously.”
Correction • Jan. 8, 1:20 p.m.: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Kendra Penry’s name.